The Channel Tunnel
Built in a more optimistic era of bonhomie with our European neighbours, the Channel Tunnel is an engineering masterpiece
Nomination: Stupendous facts: over 25 miles long, the longest undersea tunnel in the world carries 30% of the UK’s trade with the Continent and beyond. Five years in the making, and now carries thousands of cars, trucks, passengers and containers between Britain and France.
The ‘Tunnel sous la Manche’, as the French call it, is widely regarded as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. No less remarkable was the political will to build this tunnel between Britain and the continent. Opened in 1994, it was made complete by the High Speed Link to the newly and stunningly restored St Pancras. Anthony Smith, Chief Executive,Transport Focus
Already considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, the Channel Tunnel has also now been voted as one of RAIL’s Seven Wonders of the Railway.
The ambitious idea to tunnel under the English Channel began as long ago as 1802, with a proposal to Napoleon by mining engineer Albert Mathieu-Favier for a tunnel lit by oil lamps and traversed by horse-drawn stagecoaches. Fast forward 185 years and, in 1987, construction finally began, albeit for a tunnel to carry trains, rather than horses.
The project was beset by a number of false starts, but on May 6 1994, the longest undersea tunnel in the world finally opened. At 31.4 miles (50.5km) long - of which 23.5 miles (37.9km) is under the Channel, it is a common misconception that the Seikan Tunnel in Japan holds the record for being the longest. While Seikan is 33.5 miles (53.9km) long (two miles longer than the Channel Tunnel), only 14.5 miles (23.3km) are under the seabed. At its lowest point, the Channel Tunnel is 75 metres under the seabed. It is one of the biggest feats of engineering the UK has ever undertaken, with more than 13,000 English and French workers taking more than five years to build it. Construction began from both sides in 1988 with an impressive 11 tunnel boring machines working on the project, weighing a combined total of 12,000 tonnes (that’s 1,000t more than the Eiffel Tower). They excavated the thick chalk marl to bore two operational tunnels, with a third service tunnel in between. One operational tunnel runs towards France, the other to the UK, with connections to the service tunnel provided at regular 375-metre intervals by crosspassages. The service tunnel allows for maintenance and recovery by emergency services and evacuation when necessary. Ingeniously, the air pressure inside this service tunnel is higher than the operational tunnels to prevent smoke filling it in the event of a fire in the rail tunnels (an incident which has unfortunately occurred more than once over the years).
Formally opened by Her Majesty The Queen and French President Mitterand in 1994, full provision of services was still some way off. It was not until 2007 that the first Eurostar service ran under its own power through the Tunnel, with the first Paris to St Pancras train running in September of that year, and High Speed 1 opening two months later.
There are several ways of crossing the Channel Tunnel: on the Eurotunnel Le Shuttle roll-on roll-off service for road vehicles (including drivers and passengers); on Eurostar
passenger trains; and freight trains. The Tunnel has sadly never achieved the volumes of passenger and freight traffic that were estimated before construction, although the figures have improved since High Speed 1 was opened in two stages in 2003 and 2007. As it stands, 20 million passengers, 2.6 million cars and 1.6 million trucks use the Tunnel every year.
Open access operation was approved through the Tunnel in 2010, allowing Deutsche Bahn the opportunity to run a German Intercity Express (ICE) train through the Tunnel as a test.
Since its opening, the equivalent of six times the population of the UK has made the crossing (around 390 million people). And since the Millennium, more than two million dogs and cats have crossed through.
More than one million express delivery parcels are sent through it every single day, and a staggering 80 million vehicles have boarded the Shuttle since it opened. In fact, 25% of UK trade with continental Europe passes through the Tunnel.
This, of course, means that Brexit presents many challenges for Eurotunnel, which has been preparing for the UK’s departure from the EU ever since the referendum. As with everything else, the full effects of Brexit on its services are yet to be understood…
The Channel Tunnel has suffered its fair share of controversy over the years - not least being the location for the infamous “wrong kind of snow” stories in 2009, in which five Londonbound Eurostars failed inside the Tunnel, trapping 2,000 passengers for around 16 hours during the coldest temperatures in eight years. The incident was caused by electrical failures caused by the lighter, fluffier snow. Sadly, this is a phrase that still pops up to mock the railway in times of trouble.
Despite taking nearly two centuries to move from idea to reality, and overcoming many significant setbacks over its construction and operation, the Channel Tunnel is one of the most impressive feats of engineering in the world. It is undoubtedly a Wonder of the UK’s railway as well as deservedly being a Wonder of the Modern World.